Today, we will take an analysis of several key information to help you grasp the upgrade process before the WoW Cataclysm Classic releases on May 20. Compared to previous expansions like the Wrath of the Lich King and the Burning Crusade, the upcoming new expansion of WoW Cataclysm Classic takes less time to level up.

1. Pick A Leveling Path

You have the option to team up with friends or play solo. Grouping provides additional experience and rewards, while solo play still allows for efficient leveling by following optimized routes. Complete quests and dungeons quickly to advance as fast as you can. Enjoy the new expansion at your preferred pace.

2. Choose The First Zone

To start the game, you need to pick your first zone. There are 2 zones that you can to pick from, with the Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir. Mount Hyjal has been teased for quite some time throughout the early stages of WoW Classic, and before we got the zone, we got the raid in the Burning Crusade.

The Mount Hyjal will probably be the fastest route to be at Level 85, but for the Vashj'ir, the underwater zone, is one of the most beautiful locations in WoW Classic, and all the quests are extremely fun. Choose one and explore. Additionally, prepare for sufficient amount of WoW Cataclysm Classic Gold in advance is also a good idea!

3. Experience The Dungeons

The quest lines in the dungeons are very lucrative in terms of experience and gear. I highly recommend playing the dungeons while leveling to learn the mechanics, encounter the bosses, and practice your rotations. Besides that, they offer a fresh and enjoyable experience, so why not give them a try?

4. Avoid Dungeon Farming

The next tips I want to tell you is, don't farm in dungeons. Questing experience has been exponentially better than just farming dungeons on the beta thus far. I'm sure many players don't enjoy farming through dungeons over and over again, especially when there are only 2 dungeons before you reach Level 83. Even then, there are only 2 unlocked until you reach Level 85.

5. Keep The Pre-Quests

Keep all of your pre-quests until you are close to Level 82. Whichever zone you pick to level in first, you should be leaving that zone with about 500,000 XP left to Level 82 and turning in your pre-quests. Now you could do this before you even start to level and get 500,000 XP into Level 81, but I don't recommend this path.

6. Open New Zones

New zones are now gated by level in the new expansion of WoW Cataclysm Classic. Whereas in previous expansions, you could go to any zone you wanted, easily kill mobs and then level up. You won't be able to get into certain zones or quest in zones until you hit a specific level.

Each zone has a small cut scene before you can enter it and start questing, except for Twilight Highlands, which has a long quest chain in Orgrimmar or Stormwind before sending you into Twilight Highlands. Deepholm is not accessible until Level 82, Uldum at Level 83, and Twilight Highlands at Level 84. Try to complete each zone you're in before moving to the next.

7. Gain Reputation

Reputation is very important in the early stages of WoW Cataclysm Classic, and you'll want to get as much as you can while questing so you don't have to spam dungeons just for reputation or do all these quests at Level 85. Here is the experience breakdown by level:

• Level 80-81: 1.7 million XP
• Level 81-82: 2.1 million XP
• Level 82-83: 4 million XP
• Level 83-84: 5.2 million XP
• Level 84-85: 9.1 million XP

The experience per level goes up exponentially. My recommendation for leveling is the following: Level in Mount Hyjal or Vashj'ir until you hit Level 82, move into Deepholm and unlock the Therazane reputation vendors. From there, quest in Uldum until you do most of the zone or complete it, and then start the Twilight Highlands and go until you're 85.

8. Change The Gear

Be prepared to throw away your gear for the previous expansions. Most of your gear will be replaced by Level 85. None of them compare to the simply insanely powerful pieces you'll get at max level. While it's going to be sad to lose that Shadowmourne or Val'anyr, just know that those weapons will always have a place in your bag.

WOW Cataclysm Classic has finally announced an official release date, with its pre-patches and release arriving much earlier than we expected.

WOW Cataclysm pre-patch will be released on April 30th. It will start with playable Goblins and Worgen and include numerous class changes, entire shattered world revamp, transmog and gear stat changes.

The full Cataclysm will be officially released on May 20th and will include 7 new zones, 9 new dungeons, 3 raid dungeons, a new Tol Barad PVP Zone and flying in Azeroth, and more.

Such an early release means players have limited time to make last-minute preparations. So, if you’re planning to play WOW Cataclysm Classic and want to start your new experience as early as possible, these are the seven things you should consider first.

Level Up Your Main Class

I think the most recommended thing to do first on anyone’s list is to simply upgrade any class you are interested in playing Cataclysm Classic with.

Because every class in the game will undergo a series of changes from Wrath to Cataclysm. Classes such as Hunters and Paladins will receive some more obvious changes, such as a new resource system.

Additionally, many of our favorite classes have access to some of the most well-known class abilities from WOW Retail, such as Rogue’s Smoke Bomb, Druid’s Stampeding Roar, Warrior’s Heroic Leap, and Priest’s Leap of Faith.

This is great for leveling up your character, and also allows you to benefit from the active XP buff in WotLK Classic, which gives you an additional 50% XP buff, making leveling up even faster.

Another advantage of leveling up your characters now rather than after Cataclysm pre-patch is that all the old areas remain intact and haven’t been converted with Cataclysm world revamp. So if you prefer the old version of Azeroth to Cataclysm world revamp version, now is the perfect time to complete all those old quest lines.

Prepare To Upgrade Your New Race Combinations

However, upgrading after Cataclysm is pre-patched is another option. Because Cataclysm does extend to more race class combinations, creating a lot of new playable options. Such as Human Hunters, Night Elf Mages, Warlocks, and Shaman for Alliance, and Tauren Paladin, Troll Warlock, and Blood Elf Warrior for Horde.

In Cataclysm, you also get two new race options in the pre-patch: Worgen for Alliance and Goblins for Horde.

So if you’re more interested in upgrading these types of new race combinations in pre-patch, you can still make some preparations ahead of time to ensure these characters get a strong lead once Cataclysm pre-patch launches.

The best way is to start saving up WOW Cataclysm Classic Gold for Pre Raid Gear early so that you can level up those characters as quickly as possible once the pre-patch finally arrives.

Prepare Your Professions In Advance

Another thing you should do before WOW Cataclysm is complete all your professions in advance. Because whether you want to earn tons of gold early on through Herbalism, Mining, and Alchemy, or you want to make more endgame progress to stay ahead of the competition, the profession plays a key role.

Currently, you can easily find many items related to professions in the auction house. But once Cataclysm officially launches on May 20, more players will start paying attention to the new tier of collection materials, which will be more expensive. Because they are in outrageous demand.

Collect Certain Wrath Mounts

Plus, now this is probably your best chance to get some of the rarer items before they disappear completely with the release of Cataclysm.

Once Cataclysm is fully launched, certain mounts, such as Swift Zulian Tiger and Swift Razzashi Raptor, will become unobtainable. And because of changes in the instance of Zul’Gurub, many rewards from Wrath will be harder to obtain than they are now. So if you want to collect these mounts early, now might be a good time to do so.

Collect Transmog Items

WOW Cataclysm will be an expansion packed with features, including a new Tol Barad PVP Zone, a bunch of new dungeons, tons of class changes, and better ways to itemize your characters through recasting. But among all these features, none can match Transmog.

In fact, it is a system that allows you to modify the appearance of items. We will choose the visual effect of the item. Transmog system is very similar to the one in Retail WoW in that the items you acquire are permanently added to your collection without having to hold on to the item.

This allows you to change the appearance of any item you are currently wearing to any item in your collection. While it does have some limitations, it also provides players with a fair amount of creativity.

You can start collecting Transmog items in Wrath now while you wait for Cataclysm pre-patch, and temporarily store any items you’re interested in adding to your collection in your bank. These items will be added to your collection once Cataclysm is officially launched.

Complete Plunderstorm Event

The sixth item on the list will be to complete Plunderstorm Event rewards before they disappear.

This is a new game mode currently available to all players with a World of WarCraft subscription. In this battle royale game, you can kill elites, loot Plunder spells and abilities and survive. If you can do it, you will become King of Hell.

When you play Plunderstorm, you will earn Plunders, which will be converted into reputation in Plunderstorm Faction. Basically, it’s kind of like some kind of reputation grinding, but rewards you with cosmetic pets and even mounts.

Most Plunderstorm items are exclusive to Retail and Dragonflight, and some of the more sought-after items can also be found in WOW Classic. If you’ve done most of the preparation before Cataclysm launches, you can start working on Plunderstorm rewards now before they disappear so you can stockpile enough gold to buy flying before Cataclysm launches.

Store Gold

It is worth noting that flying will be added to Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor areas in Cataclysm to help expand your flying capabilities. Not only will you move faster in the open world, but it will also be easier to get from area to area.

But unlocking flying requires some gold. So until Cataclysm is released, grinding enough gold should be your first priority.

If you have enough availability, gold will eventually become a useful currency throughout the expansion. Whether you want to purchase leveling items, upgrade all your spells and abilities, retrain your character talents for the endgame, or you’re simply speedrunning professions.

Anyway, that’s it for this Cataclysm preparation guide. I hope this expansion will allow us to see a ton of changes that will make it a better experience than the original version. Let’s wait and see!